First Class Lessons: Lesson XXVI(recapitulation)

Schmidt Number: S-5956

On-line since: 30th September, 2017

Lessons for members of the Free School for Spiritual Science,
from stenographic notes in German unrevised by the author.

Translation: Frank Thomas Smith

My
dear Sisters and Brothers,

Since the Christmas Conference an esoteric breath flows through
the whole Anthroposophical Society. And those members of the
Anthroposophical Society who have taken part in the general
members' lectures will have noted how this esoteric breath
flows through all the work within the anthroposophical movement
now, and should do so in the future.

This was a necessity which, above all, flows from the spiritual
world, from where the revelations come which should live in the
anthroposophical movement.

Therefore, the necessity arose to create a certain nucleus for
anthroposophical esoteric life, to create real esoteric life,
and therewith the necessity arose to build a bridge to the
spiritual world itself.

In
a certain sense the spiritual world had to manifest the will
for the creation of such a School. For an esoteric school
cannot be created by human arbitrariness, nor from that human
arbitrariness called “human ideals”; rather must
this esoteric school be the body for something which flows out
of spiritual life, so that everything that occurs in such a
school presents the outer expression of an activity which in
reality occurs in the spiritual world itself. Therefore, this
esoteric school could not have been created without first
asking the will of Michael, which since the last third of the
nineteenth century has been guiding human affairs - something
which I have often mentioned here in members' lectures.

In
the course of time this will of Michael again and again
cyclically intervenes in human affairs from the spiritual
world. And when we look back in the evolution of time, we find
that this same Michael-Will - which we can also call the
Michael Reign - was active in the spiritual affairs of
humanity, in the great questions of civilization before the
Mystery of Golgotha, in the time of Alexander in Greece through
the Chthonian and Celestial mysteries, and which was to spread
to Asia and Africa. Where the Michael-Will reigns, there is
always cosmopolitanism. What differentiates people on earth is
overcome during the Michael age.

The
most important influence, related to Aristotle and to
Alexander, which was under the impulse of Michael, was followed
by that of Oriphiel, and after Oriphiel came the Anael impulse,
the Zachariel impulse, then the Raphael impulse, then the
Samael impulse, then the Gabriel impulse, which extended into
the 19th century. And since the seventies of the
nineteenth century we are again under the sign of Michael's
reign. It is in its beginnings. But Michael's impulses must
flow into all legitimate esoteric activities in a conscious
manner - what can be clear to you, my sisters and brothers,
through the general lectures for members.

And everything connected with the Christmas
Conference leads to what is constituted as the basis of the
anthroposophical movement's formation of this Esoteric School
inspired and guided by Michael. It therefore rightfully exists
in our times as a spiritual institution. All those who want to
be rightful members of this School must accept this in their
lives with the deepest sincerity. They must feel that they
don't merely belong to an earthly community, but to a
supersensible community, whose guide and leader is Michael
himself. Therefore, everything communicated here is not to be
understood as my words, insofar as they are the content of the
lessons, but rather as what Michael communicates in an esoteric
manner to those who feel they belong with him in this age.
Therefore, what these lessons contain will be Michael's message
for our age.

And
it is because of this that the anthroposophical movement will
receive its true spiritual strength. For this it is necessary
that what membership in this School means be taken with the
utmost earnestness. It is really necessary, my dear sisters and
brothers, truly and deeply necessary, that it be indicated in
the utmost earnest manner the sacred earnestness with which the
School must be taken.

And
here within the School it must be repeatedly said: in
anthroposophical circles there is much too little earnestness
for what really flows through the anthroposophical movement,
and at least the esoteric members of the Esoteric School must
be in the forefront of what humanity can gradually develop as
the necessary earnestness. Therefore, it is necessary that the
leadership of the School retain for itself the right to allow
only those to enter as rightful, worthy members of the School
who, in every aspect of their lives, want to be worthy
representatives of anthroposophy; and the decision about
whether this is the case or not must lie with the School's
leadership.

Do
not consider this, my sisters and brothers, as a limitation of
freedom. The School's leadership must also have its freedom and
be able to recognize who belongs to the School and who does
not, just as each one is free to decide whether to belong to
the School or not. So, a free, ideal-spiritual contract, so to
speak, between each member of the School and the leadership
must be agreed upon. In no other way could esoteric development
be called healthy, especially not one which is worthy of the
fact that this Esoteric School exists under the direct force of
the Michael impulse itself.

Conscientious care of the mantric verses so that they do not
fall into unauthorized hands is the first requisite; but also,
to really be a worthy representative of the anthroposophical
cause.

I
only need to mention a few things to show how little the
anthroposophical movement is still grasped with complete
earnestness. It has happened that members of the School have
reserved their seats by placing on them the blue membership
certificates, which gives them the right to participate in the
School. [1] It has happened in the Anthroposophical Society
that whole piles of the News Sheets, only intended for members,
have been found on the trolley cars that run from Dornach to
Basel. And I could add many other examples to this list. And
amazing things happen as a result of this lack of earnestness.
Even with things that in everyday life are taken seriously, at
the moment when those within the anthroposophical movement are
expected to do so, they do not take them seriously.

These are things which must be considered in connection with
the firm structure that this School must have. Therefore, these
things must be said, because if they are not observed, one
cannot worthily receive what is given here in the School as
revelations from the spiritual world. At the end of each
lesson, your attention is expressly drawn to the fact that the
being of Michael is present while the revelations from the
spiritual world are given, and are confirmed by Michael's sign
and seal.

All
these things must live in the members' hearts. And worthiness,
profound worthiness must reign in all that is bound even in
thought to the School. For only in this way what today is to be
carried through the world as an esoteric stream can live. And
that includes the duties incumbent on each individual.

The
mantric verses written here on the blackboard can only be
possessed, in the strictest sense of the word, by those who
have the right to be present. And if a member of the School is
unable to attend a lesson during which mantric verses are
given, another member, who has the verses, may give them to
him; but it must be for each individual case, that is, for each
person to whom the verses are to be given, that permission must
be requested, either from Dr. Wegman or from me. Once
permission is granted in respect to a person, it remains
valid. But permission must again be requested for each
other individual. This is not an administrative rule, it is an
occult rule that must be strictly adhered to. For every act of
the School must be connected to the School's leadership: and
that begins with having to request permission from the School's
leadership for acts having to do with the School. Not the one
who is to receive the mantras may ask, but only the one who is
to give them, using the modality that I have just described. If
someone takes notes on what is said here, except for the
mantras, he is obliged to keep them for only one week, and then
to burn them.

All
these things are not arbitrary rules, but they relate to the
occult fact that esoteric matters are only effective if they
are embraced by the School members' attitude. The mantras lose
their effectiveness if they fall into the wrong hands. And it
is a rule so firmly inscribed in the cosmic order, that the
following once happened and a whole group of mantras, which had
been in effect within the anthroposophical movement, have been
rendered ineffective.

I
was able to give mantric verses to a number of people; I also
gave them to a certain person, who had a friend. The friend was
somewhat clairvoyant. And it happened that while the two
friends were sleeping in the same room, the clairvoyant friend,
when the other one merely repeated the mantra in thought,
surreptitiously copied it and then did mischief with it by
giving it to others as coming from himself. It was necessary to
look into the matter, which revealed why the mantra became
ineffective for all those who possessed it.

Therefore, my dear sisters and brothers, you must not take
these things lightly, for esoteric rules are strict; and when
someone has made such an error, he should not excuse himself by
claiming that he was unable to avoid it. Of course, if someone
runs through a mantra in his mind, and someone else copies it
clairvoyantly, he certainly can do nothing about it.
Nevertheless, the rules are applied with an iron necessity.
[2]

I
mention this so that you can see how little arbitrariness is
involved, and how these things are being read from the
spiritual world and that the practices of the spiritual world
apply. Nothing is arbitrary in what occurs in a rightly
existing esoteric school. And the earnestness from this
esoteric school should stream out to the whole anthroposophical
movement. For only then will this School be what it should be
for the anthroposophical movement. But when something is done
which only springs from personal motives and then it is
pretended that it is because of devotion to the
anthroposophical movement - well, I don't mean to say that
it should not happen, because obviously, people today must be
personal - but then it is also necessary that truth lives in
what is personal, that for instance if someone comes here to
Dornach for personal pleasure he should admit it and not
pretend otherwise. There's nothing wrong with coming to Dornach
for personal pleasure, in fact it is good. But one should admit
it and not sidestep it by declaring pure dedication to
spiritual life.

I
mention this; I could just as well mention another example,
which is more real, for it is really the case that when most of
our friends come to Dornach, a will to sacrifice is involved,
and that only in the least of cases is untruthfulness involved.
But I've chosen this example because it is the least applicable
and thus the least harmful. If I had mentioned other examples,
what I would like to have as a calm prevailing mood in the
hearts and souls of all who are sitting here now could not
exist in the necessary degree.

After that introduction, I would like to start with the verse
that is the beginning and end of Michael's proclamation to all
unbiased human beings, and which contains what all entities in
the world are saying, if one listens to them with the soul. For
from all that lives in the mineral, vegetable and animal
kingdoms, what sparkles down from the stars, what acts into our
souls from the domains of the hierarchies, from all that crawls
under and on the earth as worm-life, from what speaks in rocks
and springs and fields and thunder and clouds and lightning;
all these spoke to unbiased human beings in the past, speak at
the present and will speak in the future:

O man, know thyself!
So resounds the Cosmic-Word.
You hear it strong in soul,
You feel it firm in spirit.

Who speaks with such cosmic might?
Who speaks with such depth of heart?

Does it work through distant radiant space
Into your senses' sense of being?
Does it ring through weaving waves of time
Into your life's evolving stream?

It's you yourself who,
In feeling space, in experiencing time,
The Word create, feeling foreign
In space's soulless void,
Because you lose the force of thought
In time's destroying flow.

The
previous lesson ended, my dear sisters and brothers, with the
Guardian of the Threshold giving the last admonitions before
one passes over the yawning abyss of being; the Guardian of the
Threshold spoke the weighty, moving words:

Come in,
The gate has opened;
You will become
A true human being.

Our
souls and hearts have been exposed to the important, weighty,
meaningful words spoken by the Guardian of the Threshold on
behalf of Michael. And everything he said was to prepare us for
the attitude we must have when we come over after the gate has
been opened - over the yawning abyss of being, where one does
not come walking with earthly feet, where one flies with the
spiritual wings that grow when the soul is imbued with a
spiritual attitude, with spiritual love, with spiritual
feeling.

And
now, now, my dear sisters and brothers, will be described what
the human being experiences when he stands on the other side of
the yawning abyss of being. The Guardian of the Threshold
indicates to him: turn around and look back! Until now you have
been looking at what appeared to you as black, night-cloaked
gloom, about which you had to say that it will become inner
light and will illumine your own Self. With the last
admonitions — the Guardian of the Threshold says — I let it
become lighter, at first most gently. You feel now the first
light around you. But turn around, look back!

And
now, when he who has crossed over the yawning abyss of being
and turns around and looks back, he sees himself as an earthly
human being, what he is during his physical incarnation, over
there in the part of his being that he has left behind and
which now lies in the earthly sphere. He observes his own human
self there. He has embodied himself in spiritual being with his
spirit-soul. The earthly environment is over there now. He
stands there in the region, in which we first were with all our
humanity, where we saw what crawls beneath and flies above,
where we saw the sparkling stars, the warmth-giving sun, where
we saw what lives in the wind and weather, and where, knowing
that despite all its majesty, how the sun blazes and illumines,
despite all the beauty and greatness accessible to the senses,
we said to ourselves: our own humanity is not here; we must
seek it on the other side of the yawning abyss of being, in
what seems at first, to the senses, to be black, night-cloaked
gloom.

The
Guardian of the Threshold has shown, by the three beasts, what
we actually are. Now will be described how in the gloom that is
beginning to be light, we should begin to look back on what we
as humans are in the sensory world, together with what was our
only world in sensory earthly existence.

And
now the Guardian of the Threshold points directly back there to
the earthly man, which we ourselves also are during earthly
existence, and to which we must continually return, into which
we must always penetrate when we leave the spiritual world and
return to our earthly duty. For we may not become dreamers and
go into raptures, we must return completely to earth life.
Therefore the Guardian of the Threshold directs us to look at
the person who stands over there, who we ourselves are, in a
way that at first draws our attention to what this person is.
[An outline of a human being is drawn on the blackboard.]

He
knows that he perceives the outer world through the senses,
which are mostly situated in the head, and that he perceives
his thinking through the impulse of the head.

But
the Guardian of the Threshold now says: Look into this head. It
is like looking into a dark cell, for you do not see the
creative light within it. The truth is that what you had as
thinking over there in the sensory world is mere seeming, mere
images, not much more than mirror-images.

The
Guardian of the Threshold admonishes us to be very aware of
this, but also to be aware that what is only appearance in
earthly thinking is the corpse - as we have heard in previous
lessons - of a living thinking in which we were immersed in the
soul-spiritual world before we descended to this earthly life.
There thinking lived! Now thinking rests as dead
thinking, as seeming thinking in the coffin of our bodies. And
all the thinking we use in the sensory world is dead thinking.
It was alive before we descended.

And
what has this thinking accomplished? It has created everything
that is within the head, within this dark cell - as it appears
to the senses - that is light-creating essence. The brain,
which rests within as thinking's support, has been created by
living thinking. [The interior of the head, yellow, is drawn on
the blackboard.] It is living thinking that creates the support
for our earthly semblance of thinking.

Observe the brain's convolutions, observe what you carry within
the dark cell that enables you to think, my sisters and
brothers, observe the semblance of thinking in the dark cell,
then you will find in what is felt above as thinking [drawing:
red arrows] from out of which streams the force of will into
thinking, so that each thought is streamed through with will.
How the will streams into thinking can be sensed.

And
now we look back from the other side of the threshold at how
that other person, who we ourselves are, has waves of will
streaming out of his body into the head, which create the will,
and finally, when we follow them back to the turning points of
time which lead to our previous incarnations, how they create
the waves of thought from worlds past into our present
incarnation and form our heads, all of which makes the
semblance of thinking in this incarnation possible.

Therefore, we must be strong, the Guardian of the Threshold
tells us, and imagine dead thinking being cast out into the
cosmic nothingness, for it is only seeming. And the willing
that then arises we should consider as what comes over from
previous incarnations and interweaves and works, making us
thinkers. Within [drawing: yellow] are the creating cosmic
thoughts. These creating cosmic thoughts enable us to have
human thoughts.

Therefore, the first words the Guardian of the Threshold speaks
after he has let us cross the threshold, and after he has
announced that the gate has opened, that we can become true
human beings, the first words he speaks are:

See behind thinking's sensory light,
How in the gloomy spirit-cell
Willing arises from the body's depths;
Let be cast, through your strength of soul,
Dead thinking into the cosmic void;
And willing, it will arise
As cosmic thought's creation.

The
first words we hear on the other side, as we look back at the
figure, which we ourselves are:

[The first mantra is written on the blackboard, together with a
heading. Blackboard writing is always in italics.]

The Guardian is heard in the brightening darkness:

I

See behind thinking's sensory light,
How in the gloomy spirit-cellWilling arises from the body's depths;
Let be cast, through your strength of soul,
Dead thinking into the cosmic void;
And willing, it will arise
As cosmic thought's creation.

And
then the Guardian of the Threshold adds - and one must strain
to hear him: Now imagine that you are observing that figure on
the other side who you yourself are; you turn around again and
look into the darkness and try with all your inner imaginative
force of remembrance - as one does when retaining a physical
after-image in the eye. Try with all your strength to draw
before you something like a gray outline of what you saw over
there, but avoid drawing anything except the outline of the
figure. [It is drawn.]

Then, if one succeeds in seeing this gray outline of a figure,
behind it appears an image of the moon [a sickle moon, yellow,
is drawn], the gray figure before it.

If
one is able to keep inner calm, one sees the moon in the
distance. The gray figure outline is also there, but it is
active in us. And if we practice this over and over, we feel we
have arrived at the spiritual figure of the head that we had
over there, not the physical human figure, but at the spiritual
figure of the head that we had over there, if we can feel what
karma brings to us from previous earthly incarnations. [yellow
arrow at the right of the sickle moon.]

Therefore, you should meditate on this picture that I have
drawn here, the sickle moon with this arrow; let the mantra
unfold, with this picture as the marker for the gradual
familiarization with what forcefully comes over from previous
earthly existences.

And
secondly, the Guardian of the Threshold points with a stronger
gesture to what feeling is to the person over there, who we
ourselves are, and he admonishes that we are to see this
feeling as a dim dream. In fact, we see feeling - which makes
the person over there more real than thinking, for thinking is
illusion, whereas feeling is half reality - we see the person's
feeling enfold in numerous dream-pictures during the day. We
learn by observing it that feeling, for the spirit and in the
spirit, is dreaming.

But
what kind of dreaming is feeling? In this feeling, not only the
individual dreams, but within it the whole surrounding world
dreams. Our thinking is our own. That's why it's illusion. The
world lives in our feeling. The world's existence is within
it.

Now
we must achieve, to the extent possible, tranquility of heart,
the Guardian warns, so that we can extinguish what lives and
interweaves as feeling in the dream-pictures, just as dreams
are extinguished in deep sleep. Then we can reach the truth of
feeling, and we can see human feeling interwoven with the
cosmic life that is present in spirit in all our surroundings.
And then the real spiritual human being appears to us, who in
his body lives at first in his half-existence. The human being
appears to us from out of sleeping feeling. We feel ourselves
to be on the other side of the threshold, on the other side of
the yawning abyss of being, for feeling has fallen asleep and
the cosmic creative powers, which live in feeling, have
appeared around us.

See in feeling's weaving in the soul,
How in sleep's dim-like dawning
Life streams in from cosmic distance;
Let in sleep through tranquil heart
Human feeling waft away hushed;
And cosmic life spiritualizes
As the human being's power.

[This second part is written on the blackboard.]

II

See in

(Before it was “behind”, here it is
“in”; all the words in a mantric verse are
important.)

feeling's weaving in the soul,

(Before it was “thinking”, here
“feeling”; there “sensory light”, here
“weaving in the soul”; “weaving” is
much more real than merely semblance of light.)

[In
the first part “thinking” and “sensory
light”, and in the second part “feeling's”
are underlined.

How in sleep's dim-like dawningLife streams in from cosmic distance;

(There it was “Willing arises from the body's
depths;”, here “Life streams in from cosmic
distance;”)

[In
the third line of the first part “Willing” is
underlined, and in the second part “Life”.]

Let in sleep through tranquil heart
Human feeling waft away hushed;

It is
enhanced: Here [in the first part] it involved letting flow
through the soul's force; here [in the second part] one must
waft away human feeling. [the word “waft” is
underlined.]

And cosmic life spiritualizes

— here [in the first part] it was the willing that is
still in the human being; here it is cosmic

As the human being's power.

— the enhancement relative to cosmic thought's
creation. —

[In the first part “cosmic thought´s creation” and
in the second part “human being's power” are
underlined.]

The
Guardian of the Threshold indicates to us that we should look
back once again at the gray figure that stands over there,
which we are ourselves in earthly life, but this time after
having turned away, in our minds we turn it around in a circle.
We will find, when we rotate the figure, that the sun appears
behind it and rotates with it. [It is drawn - left, red]. And
we will realize that at the moment we are brought into physical
existence from the spiritual world, our etheric body has been
compressed from the cosmic ether. Therefore, just as the first
verse belongs to this [the drawing of the gray figure and the
first verse are numbered “I”], this second verse
belongs to this. [The drawing of the red rotating form and the
second verse are numbered “II”.]

Then the Guardian of the Threshold refers us to our will, which
is active in our limbs. And he strongly draws our attention to
the fact that whatever relates to the will is in a sleeping
state, even when we are awake. He explains how as the thought
works downward - I explained it last time, so may say it now -,
how as the thought carries warmth downward into our limbs'
movement so that it becomes will: this becomes clear in
spiritual cognition and spiritual seeing. Normal consciousness
hides this when we are sleeping, as it hides life in general
during sleep. Now we should observe the will in the limbs as
though sunken in deep sleep. The will is asleep. The limbs are
asleep. We should see this as a firm mental image. Then, when
it is firm, we realize how thinking, the source of willing in
earthly man, sinks down into the limbs. Then it becomes light
in him. The will becomes bright. It wakes up. When we first see
it in its sleeping state, we find that it wakes up when
thinking sinks downward and light from below streams upward,
which is the force of gravity. Feel the force of gravity in
your legs and arms when you let them relax: that is what
streams upward, and which meets with the downward streaming
thinking. We observe human will transformed into its reality
and thinking appearing as what ignites the will in man in an
enchanting, magical way. That is the truly magical effect of
thinking on the will. It is magic. Now we become aware of it.
The Guardian of the Threshold says:

See above the bodily effects of will,
— in the aura —
How into sleeping fields of activity
Thinking sinks down from head forces;
Let through the soul's vision of light
human will transform itself;
And thinking, it appears
As the magical essence of will.

[This third verse, with underlining, is written on the
blackboard.]

III

See above the bodily effects of will,

How into sleeping fields of activity
Thinking sinks down from head forces;
Let through the soul's vision of light
human will transform itself;
And thinking, it appears
As the magical essence of will.

Now
we imagine that the Guardian of the Threshold again points to
the person over there, who we are ourselves, telling us to look
and retain the picture, but not to turn around, but to let this
picture sink below the surface of the earth beneath where the
figure is standing. We look over there. There stands the one
who we ourselves are. We make the picture and develop the
strong force to look below, as though a lake were there and we
were looking at this image as now being within the earth, but
not as a mirror-image, but as an upright figure. [Draws.]

We
imagine this picture: the earth [A white arc is drawn.]
belonging to the third verse [This drawing and the third verse
are given the number III.] We imagine: how the earth's
gravitational forces rise, how the gravitational forces
illuminate the limbs, feet and arms [white arrows]. In later
observation, we acquire an idea of how gods and humans
cooperate between death and a new birth to arrange karma.

That is what the Guardian of the Threshold admonishes us about
when he speaks to us for the first time after we have crossed
over the yawning abyss of being.

See behind thinking's sensory light,
How in the gloomy spirit-cell
Willing arises from the body's depths;
Let be cast, through your strength of soul,
Dead thinking into the cosmic void;
And willing, it will arise
As cosmic thought's creation.

See in feeling's weaving in the soul,
How in sleep's dim-like dawning
Life streams in from cosmic distance;
Let in sleep through tranquil heart
Human feeling waft away hushed;
And cosmic life spiritualizes
As the human being's power.

See above the bodily effects of will,
How into sleeping fields of activity
Thinking sinks down from head forces;
Let through the soul's vision of light
human will transform itself;
And thinking, it appears
As the magical essence of will.

The
circle always closes. We are looking again at the starting
point, listening to all the beings and all the processes of the
world:

O man, know thyself!
So resounds the Cosmic-Word.
You hear it strong in soul,
You feel it firm in spirit.

Who speaks with such cosmic might?
Who speaks with such depth of heart?

Does it work through distant radiant space
Into your senses' sense of being?
Does it ring through weaving waves of time
Into your life's evolving stream?

It's you yourself who,
In feeling space, in experiencing time,
The Word create, feeling foreign
In space's soulless void,
Because you lose the force of thought
In time's destroying flow.

By
this affirmation, Michael is present in this, his rightfully
existing School. His presence is confirmed by his sign, which
should loom over everything given in this School:

[Michael Sign - in red]

It
is confirmed by his seal, that he has impressed on the esoteric
striving of the Rosicrucian School, and which lives on
symbolically in the threefold verse:

Ex deo nascimur

In Christo morimur

Per spiritum sanctum reviviscimus

And as
Michael impresses his seal, the first sentence is spoken with
this gesture:

[draws: Image 1, the lower seal gesture, yellow]

The second sentence with this gesture:

[draws: Image 1, the middle seal gesture, yellow]

The third sentence with this gesture:

[draws: Image 1, the upper seal gesture]

The first gesture means:[3]

I esteem the Father

It lives mutely as we say: “Ex deo nascimur”.

[lower seal gesture]

The second gesture means:

I love the Son

It lives mutely as we say: “In Christo morimur”.

[middle seal gesture]

The third gesture means:

I unite with the Spirit

It lives mutely in the Sign, which is Michael's Seal, as we speak:
“Per spiritum sanctum reviviscimus”.

[upper seal gesture]

Thus, today's Michael affirmation is confirmed by means of his Sign
and Seals:

[Michael's Sign]

[spoken with the seal gestures:]

Ex deo nascimur

In Christo morimur

Per spiritum sanctum reviviscimus.

***

Translator's notes:

[1]
It is a fairly common practice in Germany and Switzerland for
people who come early to a function to place a paper, notebook,
or hat on a chair to reserve their places.

[2]
It seems to me, although the editors of the German original say
nothing about it, that Rudolf Steiner was being ironic here,
that a School member gave the mantra to his unauthorized
friend, who then passed it on to others, and that the member
then used the “clairvoyant” story as an
excuse.

[3]
The Michael Sign and Seals: From the stenographic notes of the
seven recapitulation lessons, it is not possible to determine
when Rudolf Steiner only wrote the words on the blackboard or
when he spoke the words and wrote them, or only spoke them.

***

This was the last Lesson for the Esoteric School. Rudolf
Steiner was unable to continue because of illness. He died on
March 30, 1925.